“Man vs. Bee” is the new series starring “Mr. Bean” actor Rowan Atkinson on Netflix. As a house sitter, he is supposed to look after the house of a very rich couple. But that ends in disaster. Not entirely innocent: a bee.
Trevor Bingley (Rowan Atkinson) works as a house sitter in the Netflix series “Man vs. Bee” – and for the first time: For a week he is not only supposed to look after the house of a very rich couple, but also their dog Cupcake, one of them has a severe nut allergy. (It makes sense that he’ll accidentally eat nuts over the course of the nine episodes, right?) Because Trevor is incredibly clumsy, as he proves in the ten to fifteen minute episodes.
“Man vs. Bee”: New on Netflix
The usual house sitter has spontaneously dropped out and the very rich couple is annoyed before they leave for vacation when they have to explain again in a fast run what is different (and particularly expensive) about their house. The faucet in the kitchen only reacts to gestures and the kitchen cabinets only open when there is a specific movement. The paintings on the wall are very expensive, including a real Kandinsky, and the cars in the garage are worth millions. Lots of material for bizarre situation comedy. And the viewers don’t have to wait long for that either. A bee has moved into the house with Trevor. And he tries to fight it with all means. When he finally lured her into a trap with a peanut butter sandwich in the oven, he removed the device from the kitchen and released the bee in the garden. But when she doesn’t choose the way back into nature, but flies straight back into the house, Trevor is sure: She’s after him.
The house also appears to be state-of-the-art: some areas are protected by numerical codes, historical years of battles that most of you may have never heard of. When Trevor entered the code incorrectly three times, the only way to operate the system was with the very rich owner’s voice control. Actually. Because he imitates her voice and thus deceives the castle. Splendid.
When the owners video call through to make sure their mansion is still standing, Trevor fakes a frozen connection by staring into the phone’s camera — then quickly hangs up. Nothing is the way it used to be in the house. He had to repair an accidentally destroyed masterpiece with ketchup, for example. And the owners don’t exactly need to know about the burglars in the property.
Things aren’t going so well for Trevor privately: for the impromptu job of babysitting, he had to postpone the planned vacation with his teenage daughter Maddy, whom he prefers to call “pea” or “sugar pea”. His ex-wife and Maddy’s mom reveals in the course of the episodes that Trevor has been distracted by small things in previous jobs. He felt attacked by a copier in a broker’s office and followed by a shopping cart in the supermarket.
It’s an entertaining series that doesn’t rest on its laurels, but always delivers new laughs, even if some situations involving the quirky main character sometimes seem exaggerated. They get along with almost no dialogue, which should sound familiar to “Mr. Bean” fans, the idea for the series came from Atkinson and screenwriter William Davies. A must for all fans and everyone else who likes it entertaining. The subject of man vs. nature also makes you think, because after all, bees are important insects that play a central role in the pollination and fertilization of plants. And shouldn’t we be a lot happier to see them buzzing around in the garden?
